Seanad debates

Tuesday, 31 May 2005

Disability Bill 2004: Second Stage.

 

7:00 pm

Photo of Tony KettTony Kett (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and I congratulate him on bringing this Bill before the House. It will be one of the most important Bills discussed in my time here. I commend him on the energy and enthusiasm given to it and I also commend the contributions made by Deputies O'Dea and Mary Wallace when they were in the job. I know it was not an easy task.

The publication of the report by the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities was a watershed in the sector. It dealt comprehensively with the issues faced by people with disabilities, their carers and advocates and became the cornerstone of Government policy. This is a new beginning for people with disabilities. They will witness the positive manifestation of everything this Government has done, from legislation right through to the resources the Minister of State is putting in the sector. Nobody has suggested this is the be all and end all of legislation, but it is a new beginning. Anyone who has negative feelings about it should consider the positive repercussions it will have for those who deal with disability on a daily basis.

There are many people to commend. The DLCG is the consultative group brought together to guide the Minister of State, the Taoiseach and others. Senator Terry mentioned that representatives of NAMHI were upset and pulled away from it. I accept their right to do that. However, the Disability Federation of Ireland represents over 150 voluntary bodies and its representatives are fairly happy with the changes made and the amendments accepted by the Minister of State.

The shame on us is that we are behind in looking after disabled people. They did not drop out of the sky and are here since the beginning of mankind. In pre-Christian Ireland, the Brehon laws categorised them, not very flatteringly, as idiots, doters, fools and people without sense. However, they were exempt from certain punishments and were protected from exploitation. Even at that time, such people were protected in some small way. Daniel Defoe was the first person to come up with the idea that these people should be housed in what he termed "fool houses". Unfortunately, his intentions were not good as the idea was to keep them out of sight, out of mind. His thinking was to protect society from them and a stigma is still attached to disability today. One only has to talk to people with disabilities, their carers and families to realise this.

Over the past 40 years, there have been many improvements, especially in the attitude of the public. In the past eight years, major resources and benefits have been given to people with disability, but not enough. It is no wonder the parents of these people felt so let down and so frustrated by successive Governments that they had to resort to other means to sort out their dilemmas. The voluntary sector then came to the fore, thanks to wonderful people with vision such as the late Lady Valerie Goulding, whom I knew and with whom I worked. Such people stepped into the breach when the public finances were not there and Governments were not thinking about the issue. The voluntary organisations today stand disabled people in good stead. They are a credit to us all. With a few exceptions, they do a tremendous job with limited resources.

The challenge faced by this Government in 1997 was formidable. There were areas where little or no service was being delivered. As someone who has worked in this area for a long time, I am heartened by this legislation, which will have a tremendous impact into the future. Its provisions represent the way forward in the area of disability. For many families to whom I have spoken, this is the first time they have seen a light at the end of the tunnel. They consider that something real is finally on offer in place of mere aspirations. I hope we continue as we have started in ensuring that families are give all the resources and commitments they require. We are putting in place the most effective achievable combination of legislation, institutional arrangements and services to support those with disabilities and their families. This will serve to reinforce the possibility that persons with disabilities can find their way into the mainstream, live their lives in the best possible way and link into the regular workforce where possible.

The unblemished truth is that all of us have failed persons with disabilities in the past. Improvement in this area is not something that is impossible to deliver. Those with disabilities have a reasonable expectation to engage in what life offers them. This is not too much to ask and it is not too much for us to deliver. It is to be hoped that this legislation will ensure we have public policy based on an understanding of disability. This disability proofing, which was alluded to by Senator Terry, is something for which the DFI has repeatedly called.

The federation asks that those charged with the responsibility of making decisions within Departments will consider the needs of persons with disabilities. If this approach is not taken, the consequence will be poor decisions from the perspective of those with disabilities. There may be a requirement in the coming years that those responsible for making decisions that have an impact, whether negative or positive, on the lives of people with disabilities should partake in a training process that will educate them on the impact of those decisions. People often make decisions without any awareness of their potential impact on people with disabilities. A consideration of the needs of those with disabilities before any decisions are made will have a positive effect.

As the Minister of State observed, significant funds have been invested in the area of disability and there has been much effective legislation. There is no doubt that if this legislation is implemented effectively so that discrimination is eliminated, employment can be an attainable objective for persons with disabilities. Employment is a key to taking such persons out of the mire. Statistics indicate that 80% of households headed by a person with a disability struggle with poverty. This is not good enough and we, as the makers and enforcers of legislation, must ensure we monitor the legislation to ensure its effectiveness. Those who choose to ignore it should bear the full brunt of our dissatisfaction. Many Governments in the past have attempted to remove the various levels of discrimination from our society but we have failed collectively in this endeavour.

I am delighted to note the Minister of State's comments on developments following his recent discussions with the Taoiseach and the DLCG on the sectoral plans. More monitoring and accountability will now take place and Departments will be required to prepare and publish a plan of projected measures. Moreover, they will be required to demonstrate their achievements on a regular basis. My initial impression of the sectoral plans was that they were somewhat milk and watery. However, this brings an entirely new focus to this area and is a positive development.

Access is the gateway to full participation in society for those with a disability. Access refers not only to the ability to access a building, park or beach but encompasses the right to access transport services. We must facilitate people with disabilities in enhancing their educational prospects, seeking housing and living independently if they so desire. One of the wonderful advantages of modern technology is the opportunity it affords some of those with disabilities to attain an independent living. In short, people with disabilities should have equal rights to access those things which are accessible to able-bodied people. It is no longer acceptable that a person with a disability should have to use a back door because the front door is inaccessible, be lifted bodily up the stairs in a wheelchair or endure the humiliation of being unable to access a toilet. Such occurrences should be consigned to the past.

Part M of the Building Control Regulations 1991 refers to the necessity of ensuring ease of access and usage for persons with disabilities in respect of new buildings and significant extensions to old buildings. The inception of these provisions raised the hopes and expectations of people with disabilities but that hope has given way to weary resignation. The regulations did not achieve their objective for a reason I cannot explain. It is to be hoped that the focus on the sectoral plans will have a positive effect in terms of the sectoral plan for the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. There is no doubt that any ambiguity in the language we use in the planning regulations that relate to people with disabilities can be seized upon by designers and architects and minimised or maximised to their own benefit. In those circumstances, it is people with disabilities who will lose out.

An area not covered in the Disability Bill but which is of serious consequence and concern for those with disabilities is the issue of sheltered workshops. The Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000 brought about a situation where change was needed in the functioning of sheltered workshops. I understand there is a draft proposal on a Minister's desk in this regard. I am not sure whether it is the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Brian Lenihan, or the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin. The draft proposal considers the number of workshops and the numbers of people involved.

I work for an organisation that has managed one of these workshops effectively for many years and have seen at first hand the benefits participants derive from the workshops. Participation brings a sense of self-worth and the feeling of being part of a workforce. At the same time, participants have the safety net of knowing there is no pressure on them to deliver anything in terms of productivity and so on. However, under the new guidelines relating to sheltered occupational services, we will now have to tell these people, perhaps after they have participated for as long as 35 years, that they can no longer be accommodated. They must now either be employed in the regular workforce, which is difficult to do with an embargo, or released from the sheltered occupational services.

This is a cause of major concern. The idea behind the workshops was that participants would be trained and educated for entry into the mainstream workforce. However, this is not a realistic aspiration for many people and in such cases, long-term participation in sheltered workshops has been provided. It will ruin some of these people if they are asked to go out and join a special occupation scheme, SOS. They simply will not do it. Such persons currently enjoy true fulfilment but they are likely to end up participating only in a day care activity. Whoever evaluated this system did not visit the sheltered workshops that are run effectively. If they did so, they would not institute the programme which they appear to be developing.

In terms of national disability standards, a consultative paper on guidelines for person-centred services has been prepared. These guidelines, which resemble the provisions of the Disability Bill on assessments and service statements, recommend that each service user should receive person-centred health services designed to meet his or her goals and needs. The essential criteria include participation in annual assessments of health service needs undertaken by a multidisciplinary assessment team which identifies the services and interventions required to meet these needs. This implies that a voluntary organisation must have a service statement for each individual involved which must be examined every year. The Disability Bill appears to make the same provision for people who look for an assessment. Will assessments through the HSE duplicate the work of voluntary organisations? It seems pointless that, if an annual assessment of an individual is conducted, the HSE should duplicate information already recorded in his or her file. I may be as far out as a lighthouse on this matter but wonder whether a marriage of efforts may take place.

I congratulate the Minister of State on the introduction of this Bill. On behalf of people with disabilities, I look forward to its delivery.

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